There is currently a need to be able to place babies in a seat or a cradle, adapted to table height, so that one is able to watch over the baby when sitting at a table, such as at a dining table or work table. Today there are no good alternatives for this type of placement of babies and small children.
Babies of 0-6 months of age are unable to sit upright and preferably should be lying down, or half-sitting at a reclining angle, because the child's back is not sufficiently developed to support the entire weight of the child and may thus be damaged by overstraining. For this reason the usual high chairs for small children are not suitable for use with babies and very small children.
In recent years, there has also been a trend in several countries and regions toward adopting their own safety requirements for equipment for use with children, such as for high chairs and harnesses. These standards are continuously being taken into consideration in the development of new child seats, but it may be difficult to adapt chairs and equipment that have been in production for a long time, before such safety requirements came into effect. It is especially difficult to carry out such adjustments without making physical modifications on the chairs.
This is the case, for example, with the child seat TrippTrapp®, which was developed as early as 1972 and patented in 1976 and which continues to be a very popular child seat in many countries.
The chair is designed to be adjustable in accordance with the child's body size, and it therefore has a seat plate and a foot plate that may be moved into various height positions by being slid into opposing horizontal grooves at several levels on the inside of the side members of the chair and locked into these grooves by tightening and reducing the distance between the side members by the use of transverse elements between the side members, in this case two bars, one cross rail and one transversal backrest comprising two parallel transverse elements. The seat plate is further adjustable in its depth position by the plate's being pushed forward or backward relative to the seat back before the side members have been tightened toward one another, to be then locked in correct position by said tightening, thereby providing the correct seat length under the thighs of the child who is using the chair.
There is a need for a seat or cradle for babies that is easily mountable on existing chairs, both on ordinary dining table chairs and child seats, for example a TrippTrapp® chair, such as on the top part of the chair, the back part, the back legs or side members, preferably without the use of odd parts, fittings or tools.